Gloves have been used in a variety of settings as a barrier between the hands of users and objects. One example of common usage for gloves is in clean room environments. Generally, these gloves undergo a special washing and cleaning process in order to remove particulate matters along with other contaminants, so they don't contaminate products and product environments. These gloves are also packaged in a clean room setting to accommodate and ensure cleanliness when received by users.
Gloves are also used in other settings, such as in the medical field. Gloves in this environment are designed to protect both patients and healthcare workers from spreading germs. They are used to protect the hands of surgical operators, medical examiners, staff, and patients from harsh infections that can be transferred during these processes.
Surgical and examination gloves are essential in the medical environment because they act as a barrier, providing separation between a patient and health care worker. In this capacity, gloves act to block the introduction of infectious agents, particularly bacteria and fungi, from the hands of the healthcare worker into a surgical incision or wound of the patient.
It has been recognized that bacteria present in pores of healthcare workers hands frequently survive the cleaning prior to the gloving procedure and thus are transported to the glove during the gloving process.
Currently, there are different techniques available for putting on sterile or clean gloves. Based on these techniques, the user must pick up the first glove by the cuff, touching only the inside portion of the cuff (the inside is the side that will be touching the user's skin when the glove is on). While holding the cuff in one hand, the user slips the other hand into the glove.
The current techniques available for putting on gloves have many limitations. In the task of putting on the glove, the user has to handle the glove, which can often result in contamination of the glove and infection of another person. Often, the process of gloving has to be repeated to ensure gloves are put on without contamination if the outer surface of the glove is touched by a bare hand during the gloving process. In addition, some of the current methods and procedures for using latex gloves recommend double gloving to reduce the contacts made to the outer portion of the glove. A user can replace the outer glove without touching the glove since he has worn a first layer glove. This method is not ideal since it adds to the cost and time involved in the gloving process.
A new method of gloving is therefore needed to alleviate the present problem of putting on gloves. The current methods are time consuming and more importantly, prone to contamination. A new method is required in order to guarantee with certainty that users will not come into physical contact with the outer shell of the glove, and thus, will not infect others.